Drum Castle – Dawn After the Coup
Snow drifted through the open windows like lazy spirits. The castle was quiet now. Too quiet.
No cries. No resistance.
No one dared.
Wapol sat imprisoned in his own wine cellar, gagged and chained, wrapped in a velvet blanket. I left him there like an antique—dusty, irrelevant, amusing.
Raisa and Mireille had already begun sweeping through the castle's deeper chambers, burning ledgers and "experiments" left by the medical nobles who served Wapol.
What a disgusting waste of knowledge.
But that's why I came.
Not just to dominate.
To collect.
Abandoned Laboratory – Eastern Wing
The laboratory stank of iron and rot. The operating tables were cold. Restraints hung from them like broken fingers.
Raisa opened a journal she found on one of the metal trays. "Doctor Curie. Former head of surgical development. Notes suggest he was dissecting patients alive."
I nodded. "Wapol didn't rule a kingdom. He ruled a cage."
Mireille lifted a jar filled with cloudy fluid. A pair of golden eyes blinked at her from within.
"Kill that," I said calmly. "Burn everything but the journals."
It would take weeks to clean this rot from the castle.
But something caught my eye—an emblem etched onto one of the metal panels.
A cherry blossom.
No. Not a medical seal.
A symbol of defiance.
A rebel's mark.
Someone had tried to resist all this.
I needed to find out who.
Memories in the Snow
We descended into the village again, this time less as conquerors and more as… investigators.
Lucien didn't need the people to love him.
But he did want them to remember him.
And fear comes in many forms.
A boy, maybe ten, watched us from behind a frozen fence. He had a missing front tooth and a snot-covered scarf. When I looked at him, he flinched.
But didn't run.
So I crouched beside him.
"Tell me something," I said. "Do you know who left that cherry blossom mark in the castle?"
The boy sniffled, then nodded.
"My grandpa told me… it was a weird doctor. He wasn't scared of Wapol. Wore a hat with a skull on it. He said he saw him plant flowers in the snow."
"What was his name?"
"Hiriluk."
Ah.
That name.
The one even the Marines whispered about in disdain and reluctant admiration.
The Ruins of the Clinic
We found the clinic halfway up a mountain pass. It had been burned to the ground—only the stone fireplace remained.
But someone had been here recently.
Mireille crouched and pointed. "Footprints. Hoof-shaped."
"A beast?"
"Or a Zoan."
We followed the trail until we saw him.
A small figure.
Furry. Brown. Blue-nosed.
A walking reindeer.
With a doctor's bag slung over his shoulder.
And panic in his eyes.
Chopper
He bolted the second he saw us, darting through the trees with shocking speed.
But I didn't give chase.
I didn't need to.
I simply stood still and raised my voice.
"You were his apprentice, weren't you? Hiriluk's."
A rustle. Then silence.
I turned to the forest, speaking not to the boy… but to the wound.
"You were abandoned, weren't you? Hated by humans. Feared by animals. So you followed a madman who offered you a dream."
Still nothing.
"You're just like me."
That did it.
He stepped out slowly, hooves trembling. A red hat hung low over his eyes. His antlers curled awkwardly.
His name was Tony Tony Chopper.
And he was a treasure.
The Exchange
"I don't want to be found," he said. "If you're here to hurt me—"
"Why would I hurt a relic?" I asked.
"I'm not a relic."
"No. But you are something rare."
I reached into my cloak and pulled out an old surgical lens. Worn. Cracked. Once worn by a man who believed cherry blossoms could cure the human heart.
"I found this in the ruins of the lab. Your mentor had it."
He stepped closer, paw outstretched.
"But I won't give it to you," I said, pulling it back.
His eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because I want you to remember something, Chopper."
"What?"
"The world doesn't change because people dream. It changes because people take. Your mentor died trying to give. But if you want to survive, you'll have to become a taker, too."
He didn't speak.
But he didn't run.
Later That Night
Back at the castle, Raisa watched me from the upper balcony.
"You let him go."
"I don't need him now. He's still raw. Fragile."
"Then why engage at all?"
"Because one day," I said, "he'll meet someone who changes everything. And when he does…"
"What?"
"He'll remember me."
"And if he doesn't?"
I smiled.
"I'll kill him."